The Rules of Being Dead
by Mint18
Summary: Killian's never been fond of rules, so why after finding the underworld not the his personal taste, shouldn't he test Hades' resolve to keep him trapped in the underworld?


 _Don't try to escape_

 _Don't ask questions_

 _Don't pick a fight_

 _What the Leader says goes_

 _Comply or suffer a fate far worse than your death provided._

There is a different set of rules for each and every set of circumstances you find yourself in. And Killian had found Hell to be no different. Thankfully most sets of rules are designed to be broken and he especially found these ones to be almost begging for it.

Maybe if these rules meant that he got to see his family or Emma he would be ok with them, but as things were, they kept him separate from everyone and everything he had ever cared about.

And that most definitely wouldn't do.

The house he had found himself in smelled like Emma. It sounded like her too. There were ghosts here, all echoing the possibilities that would never come to pass.

At first he decided he could live with it, getting to hear her voice at all, he decided was a privilege. But then it began to speak words that played out scenarios that would never come to pass, that would never become the wonderful memories that they should have been.

A couple of times he swore he could hear the laughter of children, the pattering of small feet and even the barking of a dog and his heart started to break all over again.

Sometimes he would hear her crying. Screaming out for him in her daily nightmares, and he ached for her. He ached to hold her close and soothe the pain and heartache they both felt from the separation. He heard too exclamations of love, surprise and even anger. All were messages that would never be delivered. Fights and arguments they would never have. Peaceful conclusions never reached and make-up sex that they would never have. This was almost worse than listening to her nightmares.

The worst came to pass when the visions started. No longer was it only the echoes of Emma's voice that tormented him. But her ghost as well. Suddenly she was trapped in there with him. Every mirror he passed showed him something different, sometimes the past and sometimes a future that no longer existed. He saw her with her belly swollen with his child, he saw his child cry, calling for him. He saw their happiest times together as well as their worst. There was the beanstalk, their torment in Camelot and her 'I love you' as she threw herself in the vortex of darkness. It all created the same result. His anguished cries and broken glass.

The onslaught was never ending and unrelenting. For every mirror he smashed, two more would appear. For every slice of his skin the broken glass caused, his heart filled with twice the pain until he thought surely he could take no more. He might have been dead but it did not stop the pain, it did not stop the torture that would soon surely split his heart in two and mercifully allow him to die all over again.

The terror stopped as quickly as it had begun. It allowed him to eat and regain something strength. Surely though the second onslaught could not be far behind its predecessor. But for now silence had descended and swiftly diminished the echoes that terrorised him.

The taunting was over and it was a startling reminder that it had only ever been him that was here. Of course it had. This was his own personal hell after all, why invite anyone else to this particular pity party?

He had expected that being trapped in the underworld would mean trying to make up for all his past misgivings, seeking forgiveness from those he had unfairly wronged and accepting the hurtled abuse where he could not make up for his selfishness and or fix the many lives he'd ruined through his quest for revenge. He had never imagined that he would become trapped in a world where he had everything he ever wanted apart from the one thing that would make it so real and worth living.

Yes Captain Hook had become domesticated but it was all because of Emma. And it also only because of Emma that he had ever wanted to be and now he had it.

Without her.

Hades had messed with the wrong pirate.

Pirates in general don't have much regard for rules. But this one specifically had a particular disregard for constraints, especially the ones he was currently being held under.

Escaping one's own personal hell is supposed to be impossible. Because as personal hell would suggest, it should then be impossible to escape the inescapable prison that is specifically designed to hold you. But yet again Hades had underestimated his foe.

Now without Emma, Killian Jones was first and foremost a dreaded pirate captain and today he was going to make use of the skills he had learnt on the high seas. He was going to find the damn door to his 'inescapable' prison and see himself out. Permanently.

Breaking the rules of the underworld would come with a price, but so normally would breaking any rule. And Killian Jones was more than familiar with paying his dues. So what could possibly make breaking these ones any worse than in any other situation where Captain Hook had bent and stretched the un-yieldable, unbreakable rules?

Killian Jones had a family to return to. No matter the cost. Nothing could be worse than living with the ghost of Emma and their children, in their dream home when he could be living the real damn thing.

So yes, Killian Jones was off to pick a fight with the ruler of the Underworld. One that he was going to win thank you very much. Then he was headed home, after all he had a future to live out and Hades very kindly showing it to him had provided him with all the incentive he needed.

Now he was going to go and give him a little thank you for his troubles and perhaps a goodbye kiss just to rub it in. But first he was going to carefully and deliberately break all of the rules that come with being dead and go back to the land of the living.

He was a dreaded pirate captain after all, so what else was he supposed to do but show up the ruler of the Underworld?

Besides how hard could taking down Hades be?

 _A/N: Thanks so much for reading guys, much appreciated! Please leave me a review if you liked it. To those of you who are waiting patiently for the next chapter of A One Time Thing, it is coming I promise! Just give me a couple more days for editing/final writing purposes! Minty x_


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